Ukraine Gold
I am treating myself to a new book today. Can you recommend a good fiction for me and give me a brief review?
I would appreciate knowing about some recent fictions you have read and enjoyed. Maybe you could give me a brief overview of it along with the title and author. Let me share one with you that I recently read and really enjoyed: It is a paperback I picked up in England last week and thoroughly enjoyed it: “A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” by Marina Lewycka. It is a thoughprovoking and very funny story about an 84 year old man who wants to marry a 35 year old Ukrainian woman who only wants to marry him so that she can leave the Ukraine. The man’s daughters are very upset about their father linking up with the voluptuous gold-digger Valentina who will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth. The sisters’ campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe’s darkest history and sends them back to roots they would much rather forget. A tremendously enjoyable read; and winner of the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction.
i love gregory maguire! he retells fairy tales, they’re fantastic. i just finished reading “son of a witch” which goes along the lines of the wizard of oz (and his “wicked”). it’s about the “son” of the wicked witch of the east and how he copes with not knowing who his parents are (as he is not sure she is his mother) and his coming to terms with what he thinks he should be as a person.
there are two series that i always recommend
my absolute favorite is the dark tower series by stephen king. the first book is “the gunslinger” – don’t be turned off by the fact that it is by stephen king. it’s about the last gunslinger – roland deschain – and his search for the man in black and ultimately the dark tower to save the worlds (yes, worlds). i don’t know that i could give you a better description without it being confusing or too revealing. it’s an amazing story – king even works himself into it at one point! here’s the site for it: http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/
the other series i really enjoy is the shanarra series by terry brooks. there are so many of these… there are 4 series. they are science fiction at it’s best. i never thought i would enjoy science fiction, but my goodness these are amazing. it’s essentially about the struggle between a druid council and the other races (elves, trolls, gnomes, & humans… there are also deamons, but they don’t actually exist in the same world). it goes into how the council gets corrupted and saved and rebuilt and adventures of the people who rebuild it, who save the world – multiple times. there is so much to it! here’s a site that will give you better info as it will give you some on each book: http://www.terrybrooks.net/novels/index.html
lucia! lucia! by Adriana Trigiani is very good. it’s about a young italian girl whose parents are trying to marry her off in the 40′s/50′s and her rebellion against it. she is actually telling the story of her young adulthood to a young neighbor.
the time traveler’s wife – Audrey Niffenegger
it goes back and forth between two points of view and the author does a fantastic job of doing this. a man who goes backwards and forwards in time without warning & the girl who grows up in love with him.
Hurts 5 (Blood, Tears and Gold) – Ibiza Club, Odessa, Ukraine Jun 22, 2011